These Days, Even iPhone Backup Batteries Are Fashion Accessories

Remember when the iPhone launched, and people complained that the non-removable battery was a “deal-breaker”? And then the very same thing happened to the MacBook in the form of the Air, and the very same people whined the same whine?

Happy days indeed. Now we know better: we can indeed carry spare batteries for our iPhones, only they’re external and don’t require that we power down the phone just to swap them.

And the batteries in our MacBook last way longer thanks to the fact that they are squished into every internal nook and cranny of the computer’s case instead of having to be an easy-to-remove rectangle. Not that anyone ever needed to swap a battery into a computer anyway. Well, except those dullards who would stare at a single Excel spreadsheet for the entire duration of a six-hour plane ride, and they all own PCs anyway.

Which is to say, in a very roundabout way, that Eagle has made available yet another external battery pack. And this one is orange.

It’s called – somewhat catchily – the ET-NP056K-OR. The key features, apart from the natty orange exterior and matching USB cable, are the dual USB ports (one 1-Amp port for iPhones and most other things, and one 2.1-Amp monster for iPads and fast-charging your iPhone) and the 5,600mAh battery. To get an idea of what that’ll do, here’re the various battery capacities of the current lineup of iDevices:

Even accounting for the losses inherent in ay system like this, you should still get a full charge for your mini, and a few full charges for the iPhone. Not bad for a five-ounce widget. There’s also the amusingly-named “Bonus LED flash light,” which sounds like it was a surprise even for the designers.